Research Interests

Background

Dr. Ken Platts is a University Reader in Manufacturing and is a fellow and Director of Studies in Engineering at Fitzwilliam College. He is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

He graduated with a first degree in engineering from Cambridge in 1973 and spent the first part of his career working in manufacturing engineering and manufacturing management with companies making shoe machinery, ac generators, bicycles and cranes. Following a spell as a consultant in Manufacturing Engineering and Management, he went on to head the Computer Aided Manufacturing Group at TI Research labs, before returning to Cambridge in 1987 where he pioneered a process research approach which has been central to much of the IfM research in the management of manufacturing. After gaining his PhD, he was appointed to a lectureship in Engineering in 1990. From 1996-1999 he was Director of the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos. In 2000 he was appointed Reader in Manufacturing.